Expectations
by Gnome Ignominious
Summary: She was exactly what he had expected. He wasn't anything like she'd expected at all. Two-shot.
1. Cameron

**A/N: This is the product of a few too many late-night Hameron reading fests :P**

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><p>He wasn't anything like she'd expected at all.<p>

She'd been led to believe that Dr House was mean, bitter, cruel, arrogant and e- all of the above. Her friends couldn't understand why she wanted to work for him. They were content with reading articles about his cases, hearing rumours from other students; Allison wanted more.

The first time she saw him was at her job interview. The second one, anyway. The first had been conducted by a young Australian doctor- Chase, she thought his name was, who had told her House was too busy to run the interview today, so he was doing it. Too busy, my ass, Cameron thought. You just want to suck up to your boss.

However, two weeks later, when she'd almost given up waiting for a call, she got a letter asking her to return for another interview. Apparently the selection pool had been narrowed down and Dr House was interested in interviewing her personally. Signed Dr Chase. Stop it with the ass-kissing already, loser, Cameron thought.

She had butterflies the morning of the interview. Scratch that, the things in her stomach were more like eagles flapping around in there. She was a few minutes late as she hurried along the corridor of the hospital to his office, cursing herself for the bad impression this was likely to make. She reached his door (Glass. Odd.) and knocked. The man inside looked up and beckoned her in.

He was seated behing a cluttered desk and appeared to be working on some case file or charting.

"Dr Allison Cameron, correct?" He didn't look at her as he spoke.

"Uh, yes."

"You're late. Well done. Take a look at this."

Rather confused, she crossed the room and sat down on the other side of the desk. He passed the file over to her and her eyes automatically skimmed over the lists of stats and notes about prescriptions, treatments, failures and diagnoses.

"What do you think?"

She quickly realised this was some kind of test and grouped her thoughts.

"Oxygen sats indicate some kind of respiratory problem, but the low white count makes infection unlikely. Hm. Retinal bleed makes for an odd presentation of human transmitted growth-deficient alveolarmalignousmyopathy. That's incredibly rare, though. I would definitely confirm with a lumbar punture before going any further."

"Interesting." He finally looked up at her and she saw his blue eyes. She realised her friends were wrong.

He wasn't angry or bitter; just hurting and trying not to show the world.

"What makes you say that?"

"It's funny how a young, relatively inexperienced doctor would choose a zebra like HTGDA when any old horse like, I don't know, asthma coupled with diabetes, would fit the symptoms just as well."

"I think it's funny how a doctor who is notorious for taking the hardest cases in the world expects anything less of the people he's looking to hire. And I just want every avenue to be explored for the patient before they're discharged with an inhaler and a new diet, only to die in 24 hours."

"Congratulations, Dr Cameron. You've got the job. I'll see you at 8 o'clock sharp tomorrow." With that he turned away and picked up the phone.

She was stunned. "Is that it?"

"Yes. You can go. Provided you come back tomorrow. Now, I've got to call one Mrs Miggins about a possibly life-saving lumbar puncture."

Cameron smiled. He really wasn't anything like she'd expected at all.


	2. House

She was exactly what he had expected.

Chase had given him three names from the original list of 152 applicants. Of those, Chase had read all of their resumes, conducted phone interviews with seventy of them, face to face meetings with forty and spent another week narrowing the list down even further. House didn't care that it was a lot of work for one person in the space of seven days. He needed someone to do the leg work after all.

He trusted Chase's judgement and told him to write back to the three he had selected. House didn't much want to do interviews but he figured he would have to meet the newcomer at some point, so why not get it over with? The first on the list was Allison Cameron. Pretty name, hopefully a pretty face. He was reviewing the chart of a clinic patient when she arrived slightly late for her interview.

"Dr Allison Cameron, correct?" He didn't look at her as he spoke; he wanted to hide his gleeful expression. She was hot. And she was so hired.

"Uh, yes."

"You're late. Well done. Take a look at this." He saw her confused expression out of the corner of his eye. Mission accomplished. He watched as she quickly skimmed the file.

"What do you think?"

"Oxygen sats indicate some kind of respiratory problem, but the low white count makes infection unlikely. Hm. Retinal bleed makes for an odd presentation of human transmitted growth-deficient alveolarmalignousmyopathy. That's incredibly rare, though. I would definitely confirm with a lumbar punture before going any further."

Wait, what? Was she insane? Did she just vaguely imply that she was concerned about the patient and the course of treatment? Uh oh. Better test that one out.

"Interesting." He looked her in the eye and his expectations were confirmed. She was trying to impress him and knew she had probably overstepped the mark.

"What makes you say that?" Groping for some semblance of bravery.

"It's funny how a young, relatively inexperienced doctor would choose a zebra like HTGDA when any old horse like, I don't know, asthma coupled with diabetes, would fit the symptoms just as well."

"I think it's funny how a doctor who is notorious for taking the hardest cases in the world expects anything less of the people he's looking to hire. And I just want every avenue to be explored for the patient before they're discharged with an inhaler and a new diet, only to die in 24 hours."

Well, that told you, House. Time to break the news.

"Congratulations, Dr Cameron. You've got the job. I'll see you at 8 o'clock sharp tomorrow." He turned away. Better call that clinic patient, just to be sure.

She seemed a little surprised by his abrupt manner. "Is that it?"

"Yes. You can go. Provided you come back tomorrow. Now, I've got to call one Mrs Miggins about a possibly life-saving lumbar puncture."

She got up and left. House smiled.

She was exactly what he had expected. 


End file.
